


Reunion

by LamiaHypnosia



Series: Dies Irae [6]
Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Childhood Trauma, Drama, Family Drama, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Parent-Child Relationship, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27811525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LamiaHypnosia/pseuds/LamiaHypnosia
Summary: Phineas braces himself for his estranged daughter's justifiable anger. Only after, they must all flee to plan their next move.
Series: Dies Irae [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001835





	Reunion

Kat stood up and regarded him, her face a mask of blood. Both of them were silent. 

“Kathryn…” Phineas began but they both stopped to hear approaching footsteps.

“Kat, we heard- whoa.” Nyoka stopped to take in the tableau. “Whose blood is that?”

“It appears to be Hawthorne’s.” Vicar Max grimaced and helped Phineas stand. 

“Help Kathryn, she’s wounded.” Phineas said as he rose, clutching the vicar’s hands. He wasn’t hurt but felt unexplainably weak. 

Kat laughed, then laughed louder as Nyoka and Max assisted her by bracing her between them. “It’s done, I fucking win! Now I just have to get Akande and string her up by her innards!”

“They’ll send an army after us, we have to get out of here and plan our next move. “ Nyoka said.

Spitting out more of the dead man’s blood Kat said “Nah, they’re fucking cowards. No price is high enough to go up against me.” She laughed some more which made the others exchange looks.

“How did you even get here?” Phineas asked as he and Nyoka removed Kat’s armor to get a better look at her wound. The gunshot was shallow, sluggishly bleeding. Once it stopped, he seared the wound closed with a laser.

“Apparently Ms. Welles tracked a signal left by Hawthorne here in your lab. “ Max answered politely looking away as Kat’s clothing was stripped off. “The second we move and don’t head for Tartarus they’ll know something is wrong.”

“I can scramble the UDL ship’s tracking system, that might buy us some time. But right now…” Phineas glanced at Kathryn. Kathryn. His little girl. Taking a warm wet cloth he carefully washed her face. She was forty one now by his count, and as radiantly beautiful as her mother but had been cursed by his narrow features including his nose but it was balanced by the curve of Kenna’s cheeks. Kathryn had Kenna’s smile, his father had pointed out. Another wave of melancholy washed over Phineas. How he missed his parents and that they hadn’t seen Kat grow up either.

Nyoka rapped her knuckles on Max’s arm and she excused herself and the vicar to scavenge for supplies. They were alone. Phineas grasped Kat’s hand.

“Kathryn. I can’t believe it’s you.” Why did he not feel as much joy as he thought he should. Her features were twisted up in rage and in just three words she unleashed all the venom he knew she’d had for him all these years. Knew she had but hoped against hope she’d let go of. She ripped her hand away from his.

“You left us.” 

That hurt more than anything else. Phineas closed his eyes and reeled as though he’d been physically struck. 

“Well? Nothing to say in your defense?” Kat demanded. “Do you have any idea what they did to me? They killed Mom right in front of me and dragged me away! They put me in empty rooms for hours and made me read their propaganda and if I didn’t answer their questions the right way they took away my food. If I cried for Mom they hit me. If I asked for you they’d hit me. I had to smile and work, barely eat and only sleep when I dropped. For years! And where were you!” She gripped the collar of his scrub top. “WHERE WERE YOU!?” 

“Kathryn, please. Try to understand. I did this for the good of the colony.” Phineas said evenly.

She shoved him away. “The colony!” Kat gave an ugly laugh. “You chose the colony over us. Did you miss the part about ‘they killed Mom in front of me’? I was SIX. Do you want to hear it? Let’s have some family time and talk about the old days, huh?”

“Kathryn-”

“No, let me recount the story for you, let me spin the tale, DAD. The UDL troops were looking for you and when Mom couldn’t answer their questions they said to hand me over. Mom refused and they shot her. You learned something you shouldn’t have.” She twisted her fingers into her hair. “Why? Why did you do it? Why couldn’t you have left well enough alone?! Why didn’t you find me? “

Now Phineas was angry. “What kind of father could I be to you in Tartarus?”

Kat drove her fist into the nearby wall, splitting the skin of her bare knuckles. “To the void with the rest! You chose Halcyon over us, over Mom, over me!”

Phineas drew a long breath. “Everything I did was for you. So you would have a future. Halcyon is a dying colony abandoned on the edge of the galaxy. No help is coming from Earth either and unless we find a way all of us are going to starve.”

Kat shook her head as though dodging his words.

He circled her to try and look at her face but she turned from him. “Listen to me- listen! Everything- I tried- I never- I wanted more for you, so much more. Your mother wanted so much more for you. She didn’t want your spirit broken, to become some corporate drone-”

Kat shook her head. “It gets worse. Adjutant Akande wants to empty the Hope and repurpose the cryopods.”

“What? And use them how?”

“I found some exchanges between Rockwell and Akande. They want to empty the Hope but reuse its facilities to freeze the people of Halcyon until the food crisis is solved.”

Phineas suddenly felt sick. “Their solution is to save themselves?!” He wanted to tear out his hair at that. The understanding look on Kat’s face gave him pause however.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

He rested his hands on her shoulders. “Kat, we can talk more about what happened to you and your mother later. Right now we are all in real danger. Not just the four of us here. All of Halcyon. We have to stop Akande. With Hawthorne dead we only stalled the inevitable.” 

“I was done.” She said weakly. 

“Hm?”

“With my little tirade.” At last Kathryn collapsed into his arms, hugging his neck as she did when she was a little girl though now she was almost as tall as he was. Crying in bitter, gulping sobs. He felt the vibrations of her sobs muffled into his shoulder. “I missed you, Dad.”

Phineas held her tightly and before he knew it he was crying too. "I missed you, little Kat.” He stroked her hair as he had done when she awoke from a nightmare. The nightmare was over. Yet he felt deep down a new nightmare was only beginning. 

“What are we gonna do?”

“I don’t know.” Taking her face in his hands Phineas gazed at her in wonder, relief, melancholy. All manner of emotions spun within him. All those years she’d waited to say these things to him and how many more tears she must have dammed up. He couldn’t help but smile which made her smile back. 

“Do I look like Mom?”

“Fortunately you take more after her. She was out of my league.”

That got a chuckle from Kat even through her tears. She touched his face frowning at the deep furrows and wrinkles. “You still have most of your hair. Grandpa Frost’s hair turned white and Grandpa Welles’ turned loose.”

They both laughed a little. “Grandma’s father had a full head of hair until his last day, I guess I met the two somewhere in the middle.”

She held his hand, her smile growing. 

“So I have to ask,” Phineas began. “Am I a grandfather?”

Kat blushed. “Well my last serious relationship was with a woman.”

He waved her sheepishness away. “The question still stands, in vitro is a thing, adoption is a thing.”

“No.”

“Damn. “ Phineas sighed wistfully. “I would have liked it.”

“There’s still time.”

Silence fell and Phineas knew she was thinking the same thing as he was. 

“You said last relationship, is there someone special in your life now?”

“Not exactly.”

“Do I need to ask the vicar his intentions? I saw the way he looked at you. How he touched your shoulder.”

Kat frowned. “Dad, I’m in my forties.”

“Alright but seriously. Catch up time can be later.” He patted her arm reassuringly. “We gather what supplies we can, scramble the signal and head to Gorgon. There we can plan our next move. You might have bought us some time. The Board’s forces will be in disarray with Hawthorne dead.”

Though he didn’t want to take his eyes off her for an instant, Phineas let Kat go so they could split up and scavenge what they could. He cast one last glance at the lab where he’d hidden all these years, so much accomplished here. Especially seeing his girl again. Then he said “Oh damn.”

“What?” Kat asked, concern etched on her forehead. Then confusion. She followed his gaze to a cystypig lying on its side.

“Oh it’s just Hawthorne must have killed my cystypig. Poor Bubbles.”

To Hawthorne’s corpse Kat shouted “Fucking son of a bitch!” And storming over to the stiffening body she kicked it. Still the animal lover. At least some things never changed.

“Kathryn Temperance, watch your language.” Phineas reprimanded sternly.

Kat sighed and repeated insistently “Dad. I am forty one.”


End file.
